Headlines

Food Systems and the Question of Justice: Reclaiming Food as a Commons, Not a Commodity

Food systems are routinely framed in terms of productivity, efficiency, technology, and markets. Policy debates focus on yields, supply chains, price stabilisation, and caloric availability. Yet this technocratic framing obscures a more fundamental question: justice. Who controls food systems, who bears their risks, whose knowledge is legitimized, and whose livelihoods are rendered expendable? When examined through…

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“Will India’s New Rural Jobs Law Feed Its Villages or Just Build Assets?” 

India’s rural jobs debate is being rewritten. The question is no longer just “how many days of work,” but “what kind of work, for whom, and in service of which food system.” MGNREGA’s original promise of rights-based employment and regeneration of local commons now sits uneasily beside a push towards a more centralised, mission-style rural…

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The Ground Beneath Us is Moving: A 2025 Global Status Report and Manifesto for World Soil Day

As we mark World Soil Day 2025 under the banner of “Healthy Soils for Healthy Cities,” the irony is stark. We are celebrating the vital link between urban resilience and soil health while staring down a barrel of data that suggests we are failing on both fronts. I see this year not just as a celebration, but as a…

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Subsidies, Fertilizer Lobbies, and Pre-Poll Cash Schemes: How India Built a Political Economy That Keeps Farmers Poor

India’s development model today rests on a fragile but politically convenient formula: chemicals for farmers, cash for voters.It is a system designed not to solve problems, but to manage them till the next election cycle. At the heart of this lies a political economy where fertilizer lobbies, agricultural subsidies, and now large-scale pre-election cash transfer schemes like Ladli/Ladki Behna define…

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Maharashtra Needs Scientific Policy, Not Mass Capture, to Tackle Rising Leopard Conflicts

9 November 2025 Experts in Nagpur have warned that trapping or sterilizing leopards will not solve Maharashtra’s rising leopard–human conflict and urged the Forest Department to adopt a long-term, research-led policy to reduce future numbers responsibly. They stressed the need for scientific studies and a clear policy framework to guide population management rather than ad‑hoc…

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From Engineering to Earth: The Inspiring Journey of Mandar Deshpande

Choosing the Soil Over Steel Mandar Deshpande, a mechanical engineer by training, made a transformative decision to leave behind a conventional career and embrace organic farming in Wardha, Maharashtra. His journey is rooted in a desire for a stress-free, environmentally conscious life, one that prioritizes well-being, sustainability, and community over profit. Living by Choice, Not…

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